The Stajcic Era, a Partnership of desperates or a Marriage Made in Heaven?

[FFC Mariner]

Apparently, Staj is onto this. Perhaps not this season though. He is a man to do things one or two steps at a time only.

Simon does have influence in the dressing room and needs to go before changes are made.

 

[onto it]

Simon does have influence in the dressing room and needs to go before changes are made.

The blind leading the blind?

 

[Ancient Mariner]

There has been mention of Staj in the last game post and in the 2019/2020squad post. I think here is probably the best place to discuss him.

In my opinion clearly Staj is the best coach we have had since Arnie.
If you want to be totally realistic in our position we could not do better. Our club works within a very restricted budget. MC will cough up an amount each year (supposedly $1m) on top of income and insist the club stays within that. Fact of life. Although I suspect MC may have dug deeper for Ikon and his signings and again for Oar and McCormack.
If we ditch Staj what do we get? Paying top dollar for a name coach will reduce funding available for players and is no guarantee of success. The other alternative is to go back to a cheap coach. Walmsley, Mulvey etc. No thanks.

We have Staj for 3 years and it will take 3 years to fix the train wreck this club has become.
Someone asked who selects the players we recruit. I think it was clear that in the past, it has been the manager with the owner's blessing. Which up until this year was just the manager. This can explain the train wreck. Moss played favourites over quality. Walmsley had no network or experience, Okon recruited well but could not coach the team. Mulvey let Rallis empty his books.
This year Staj has recruited reasonably well with the help of board member Anton who has some knowledge of football.
Unfortunately he has half a squad that is left over from the Mulvey disaster and is not cheap. Hence having to play square pegs in round holes.

Personally I would like to see him start to blood some more young players. This however is something that must be done with care. Pushing youngsters too far too soon can do more harm than good. Miller is making the step up as is Nizzy. SS has not been helped by being pushed too far too early.
It is a tough place to be. Play players who are past it to protect your up and comers, or throw the youngsters in the deep end.

We have to give Staj more time to turn it around. I gave up on this year a few weeks ago and am looking at the rest of the season as a trial for borderline players like Muzz (really had his chance though), Jair, Fox, and other borderline young players.
Recruitment for next year will be the big test. Hopefully the club with Staj will have been seen to have turned around from being a total joke and can be competitive in the future.

On MC spending more. I suspect he has a couple of time sin the past and seen nothing for his money. I think he has told Staj and Anton to build a going concern with a solid foundation and he will invest more when he sees something worth putting money into along with a going forward league. He is a neither a philanthropist or a Russian/Saudi billionaire with money to throw at play things. He is a businessman.

 

[Michael]

Staj won’t be punted.
We all know he’s the best since we had Arnie. The general football public know that we are much better than previous years and it’s constantly mentioned across fox sports coverage.
We’ve lacked luck but more so quality in front of goal and now defensive mistakes are adding up.
Staj is still doing the right things, he’s made tough decisions and good ones. Like locking in some of best youth prospects in years.
Dragging players after criminal mistakes and keeping it all in house. He even sucked it up and ditched his kinda weird wing back formation. And I’d say he’s got his incoming transfers 90% right.
I personally can’t wait to see who he brings in for next season.
He’ll be fine. No doubt about it.
People saying he should be sacked are f**king delusional.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Why is he the best coach since Arnie. What credentials does he have?

 

[Insertnamehere]

Why is he the best coach since Arnie. What credentials does he have?

I'm prepared to believe he is better than those we've had since. I think with the money freed up for next year we'll take a big leap towards finals.
BUT we need a marquee striker. Not a fat lazy slob who's been kicked off all the teams he's played for or a so so Brazilian who flopped at our biggest rivals. Surely our contacts in Serbia now could provide.
We need to be re-signing key players yesterday and signing aussies abroad now.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Why is he the best coach since Arnie. What credentials does he have?

I am judging by what I see on the park.
I am seeing greater commitment.
I am seeing better competitiveness.
I am seeing better fitness.
His recruitment has been good considering that he had to get players to come to the train wreck and should be better next year with previously contracted players he was stuck with coming to an end.

 

[LFCMariners]

At this rate, I would rather finish last this season with notable improvement from young players we've got signed on for next season and legitimately be in the mix for finals in 2020/21, than to come in 8th or 9th on the back of other teams being worse with little/ no real improvement in the squad and then do the same next year.

If those concerned are smart, they're already planning recruitment for next season.

 

[turbo]

Punting Staj this season would be madness. We won’t get a big name coach players will be drawn to unless it’s a rookie experiment like Fowler.

His recruiting has been generally good on a tight budget and he has some Mulvey hangovers on the ledger that need to be moved on. Not really holding Jair against him even if he fails because that was a situation where we clearly missed a few targets and had to settle for a free agent. We would be mad if they did nothing so damned either way.

I disagree with some tactical choices but especially around left back when your options are Clisby or Par how much can you do? He obviously doesn’t feel anyone is ready to step in to that role. I’m sure he’d gladly buy someone if he had the funds and an available player.

We’ve seen smart extensions with Stensness and Miller, I suspect Nisbet will be next. If we haven’t resigned Birraz it’s probably out of our hands and jury still out on some players deserving extensions, could go either way.

 

[Insertnamehere]

At this rate, I would rather finish last this season with notable improvement from young players we've got signed on for next season and legitimately be in the mix for finals in 2020/21, than to come in 8th or 9th on the back of other teams being worse with little/ no real improvement in the squad and then do the same next year.

If those concerned are smart, they're already planning recruitment for next season.

Id handle 8/9/10th, no spoon and blood a couple more young fellas. Can we get the CB back from HK that we assholed?

 

[turbo]

Id handle 8/9/10th, no spoon and blood a couple more young fellas. Can we get the CB back from HK that we assholed?

We’ll be lucky to dodge the spoon without playing more youth. On that CB though I don’t think we can play Rowles and another youth CB and we’ve clearly made the choice we want Rowles. It also makes things tricky with Ziggy, I like him but is he the CB we need to play between Miller and Rowles or do we need more?

 

[FFC Mariner]

So next season probably no Miller, Birraz, Kim, Milan Jair (all his signings)
Plus Judas, Simon and Melling go to free up cap space.
Another complete rebuild isnt it. Thats the point he wont have anything to build on.

 

[Ads]

So next season probably no Miller, Birraz, Kim, Milan Jair (all his signings)
Plus Judas, Simon and Melling go to free up cap space.


Another complete rebuild isnt it. Thats the point he wont have anything to build on.

Yeah that what I was thinking.
But if these players are already impacted by the negative mindset of consistently loosing maybe a full, full rebuild is best, especially with Simon, melling, Mac freeing up the space.

And a lot, I mean a lot rides on these new relationships with other clubs and hopefully Miller, Silvera, Nisbit & Ruiz can stick with us and keeping growing.

 

[turbo]

Miller was extended until 2022 a couple of weeks ago. Plus you missed SS and Stensness as well.

Birraz if he goes will be a reflection of us not being good enough to keep him. Not for our lack of trying I’m sure. The other visa players, not bad but not amazing either. It’s still a rebuild but it needs to be done. Should be enough familiar faces for some continuity though.

 

[Coastalraider]

It still blows my mind that Birraz spent so much time on the bench lately at other teams.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Miller was extended until 2022 a couple of weeks ago. Plus you missed SS and Stensness as well.

Birraz if he goes will be a reflection of us not being good enough to keep him. Not for our lack of trying I’m sure. The other visa players, not bad but not amazing either. It’s still a rebuild but it needs to be done. Should be enough familiar faces for some continuity though.

We shall see.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I want to keep Birraz.
I want to keep Nizzy.
If we sign them for a few years I will be happy.
I never expected that we would have Kim for more than a year.
I am not writing Jair off yet until I see more of him. A striker who scores in Korea cannot go bad in one year at the Jets.
Milan I am unsure about. He would be good in a better team and may be useful for Serbian links. Who knows?
Any of the others up for re-signing can probably be replaced with good recruiting.
We have a promising useful young foundation, which is better than what was left at the end of last season.

 

[Jay]

I am judging by what I see on the park.
I am seeing greater commitment.
I am seeing better competitiveness.
I am seeing better fitness.
His recruitment has been good considering that he had to get players to come to the train wreck and should be better next year with previously contracted players he was stuck with coming to an end.

What I see on the park is
A team with no direction
A manager that is clearly out his depth
Crowds disappearing from the games.

Staj text book coaching is miles away from the coaching knowledge of Arnie and anyone that thinks he is doing a good job is delusional !

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I just realised it is the jest game next. Do not feed the troll.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

There has been mention of Staj in the last game post and in the 2019/2020squad post. I think here is probably the best place to discuss him.

In my opinion clearly Staj is the best coach we have had since Arnie.
If you want to be totally realistic in our position we could not do better. Our club works within a very restricted budget. MC will cough up an amount each year (supposedly $1m) on top of income and insist the club stays within that. Fact of life. Although I suspect MC may have dug deeper for Ikon and his signings and again for Oar and McCormack.
If we ditch Staj what do we get? Paying top dollar for a name coach will reduce funding available for players and is no guarantee of success. The other alternative is to go back to a cheap coach. Walmsley, Mulvey etc. No thanks.

We have Staj for 3 years and it will take 3 years to fix the train wreck this club has become.
Someone asked who selects the players we recruit. I think it was clear that in the past, it has been the manager with the owner's blessing. Which up until this year was just the manager. This can explain the train wreck. Moss played favourites over quality. Walmsley had no network or experience, Okon recruited well but could not coach the team. Mulvey let Rallis empty his books.
This year Staj has recruited reasonably well with the help of board member Anton who has some knowledge of football.
Unfortunately he has half a squad that is left over from the Mulvey disaster and is not cheap. Hence having to play square pegs in round holes.

Personally I would like to see him start to blood some more young players. This however is something that must be done with care. Pushing youngsters too far too soon can do more harm than good. Miller is making the step up as is Nizzy. SS has not been helped by being pushed too far too early.
It is a tough place to be. Play players who are past it to protect your up and comers, or throw the youngsters in the deep end.

We have to give Staj more time to turn it around. I gave up on this year a few weeks ago and am looking at the rest of the season as a trial for borderline players like Muzz (really had his chance though), Jair, Fox, and other borderline young players.
Recruitment for next year will be the big test. Hopefully the club with Staj will have been seen to have turned around from being a total joke and can be competitive in the future.

On MC spending more. I suspect he has a couple of time sin the past and seen nothing for his money. I think he has told Staj and Anton to build a going concern with a solid foundation and he will invest more when he sees something worth putting money into along with a going forward league. He is a neither a philanthropist or a Russian/Saudi billionaire with money to throw at play things. He is a businessman.

Great post.